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Checklist: Review as reviewer

Published on 30 March 2025 About 2 min reading time

Topics: #checklist #code review #review

This is a checklist for reviews from the perspective of reviewer (see also the submitter part). It’s minimalistic and focuses on the soft side of the topic, not on the technicalities and rigor of the process. The goal is to be applicable in general context, but it’s targetted at code reviews specifically.

Checklist #

Read this before starting a review and then go through it before clicking the “Submit review” button.

Higher-priority first, lower-priority postponed if overwhelming.
Every comment adds real value.
Issues have suggestions, with “observation → impact → suggestion” structure if non-trivial.
Question instead of suggestion if not completely sure.
Comments are not personal and are respectful and empathetic.
Understand everything, or asked question if not.

All higher-priority items are addressed first. Lower-priority items are postponed to the next round if the first round would be overwhelming for the submitter.
Every comment adds real value, whether for technical reasons, business reasons, or mentoring purposes.
Every issue comment has a proposed (though not dictated) solution. Non-trivial issues use a brief “observation → impact → suggestion” structure, followed by a detailed description if helpful.
Any comment I am not completely sure about is a question, not a suggestion.
Every comment is only about the work, not the submitter, and is respectful and empathetic.
I understand everything in the submitted work to a satisfactory detail. If not, I asked a question.

For code reviewer’s technical checklists, see